With the government shutdown now the longest in U.S. history, its impact is beginning to be felt in unexpected places. As soon as February, it may be felt in the bellies of local school children.

School districts across the country face the possibility of scraping together emergency funds to feed low-income public school children if the shutdown continues. Staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are on furlough, and they provide funding for many school lunches.

Williamsburg-James City County Schools have enough federal money left to support these programs until the end of February, according to Jane Haley, child nutrition services supervisor at W-JCC.

“We were notified by the Virginia Department of Education that the Office of School Nutrition Programs will continue to administer school meal programs in accordance with federal statute and regulations during the shutdown,” Haley said. “According to the USDA, funding will continue through the end of February, at least.”

According to 2017-18 numbers from the Virginia Department of Education, about 3,446 students are eligible for free meals in the division, with an additional 596 students eligible for reduced-price meals. So, as many as 1 in 3 students could be affected by the shutdown.

A York County schools spokesperson did not return calls seeking comment.

Under federal school meal programs, school districts typically get reimbursed by the federal government for the meals they provide to eligible children. In 2017, W-JCC was reimbursed $161,283.46 for free and reduced-price lunches.

Without compensation, the money to pay for these programs will have to come from elsewhere as a stop-gap measure – likely pulled from other school and county funds.

“If there was a time when federal funding was not available to support these school meal programs, we are hopeful that other funds could be identified as a stop-gap measure in order for us to provide much-needed meals for children,” Haley said. “But, we certainly hope it does not come to that.”

On the school level there are major concerns, but also some confidence. Panagiotis Tsigaridas, principal at Berkeley Middle School, said where Washington falters, the community will come through.

“We as a school, we have always done what we can to support kids who are hungry, and if the worst happens, we have resources from the PTA and other groups, the support of our teachers and staff, we will do what we have to make sure no student goes hungry here,” he said.

“Our mission as educators is to do whatever we can to support these kids, be it lessons in the classroom, or making sure they have a meal to eat, we’ll always do whatever we can to take care of our students, shutdown or no shutdown.”